Derrick Rose: ‘Tearing ACL Was Closest Thing To Death’

And considering how serious a torn ACL is – so serious he called it “the closest thing to death” – that’s a big step for the Chicago Bulls all-star guard who is recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament. It is a knee injury that can be debilitating and certain painful to overcome.

But the fact that Rose is back on the court already after suffering the injury on April 28 – in Game 1 of the first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers – means he is nicely on the mend. Like two or three weeks ahead, he said. After the May 12 surgery, Dr. Brian Cole said the recovery would take eight to 12 months.

Rose is happy with his progress, but often recalls the injury

“I remember (the situation),” Rose said recently in an interview with Comcast SportsNet Chicago, his first since the injury. “I remember everything. I remember jumping in the air and coming back down, and just that popping sound. I felt it actually tear when I laid all the way out and it just let go.

“I didn’t have that that much pain after that. In the beginning I did, but I didn’t want to yell or anything. When that happened, all I could think about was people just talking. You could hear the whole arena, people just whispering all around — one of the things, like ‘Not again. Come on, man. First game back. We had the win’ — and I was just hoping [it was] nothing serious.

“Then we got to the hospital, got in the MRI machine, the whole time praying. Dr. Cole, the Bulls’ doctor, came up to me and told me it was torn. I couldn’t believe it. That’s the closest thing to death, the closest to death I’ve got to right there, where it just seemed like the wind and everything was taken out [of me].”

Rose, who joined Twitter Sunday, tweeted a picture of himself getting ready to shoot a basketball Tuesday at Berto Center. “Feels good to be back in the gym” was a tweet accompanying the picture.

There’s also a new adidas commercial, featuring Rose’s rehabilitation and determination to return, that debuted Wednesday.

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